Rail anchor



A. F. FHFHELD RAIL ANCHOR Aug. 23,, 1%32.

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 (r3 mg ed Aug. 24,. 1951 "JNVENTOR. Albert Ffifia/d Au 23, 1932; A, F HHELD 1,873,192

RAIL ANCHOR Filed Aug. 24. 1951 s Sheets-Sheet 3 A l I "nu I; Lilli:

Fig 9 I INPENTOR;

Patented Aug. 23, 1932 ATE'T OFFICE ALBERT F. FIFIELD, on em. CATHARINES; ONTARIO, cAnAnA, ASSIGNOB To THE AMER l r rcnn roux a HOE comrnumor CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION or euro RAIL ANCHOR 7 Application filed August 24, 1931. Serial No. 558,862.

My invention relatesto rail anchors and relates more particularly to two-piece rail anchorsjwhich, as is well known, commonly comprise two interlocked elements conjointly clamped onto a rail base, and one of which is engageable with a fixed portion of the railway roadfbed; such as a tie to restrain longitudinal creeping of the clamped rail relative to said tie or otherfixed, road bed panda It, has been previously"propose-d, as disclosed in the patent to Vaughan, No. 1,113,- 516, dated Ogctober 13, 1914, to providea multi-piece rail anchor comprising a flat- 5 tened bar made of spring steelextending beneath the rail and terminating in a hook for engaging a rail basefiange, said bar having an upwardly extending portion on the other end thereof adjacent to the other side of the opposite rail basefiangeextending above the bottom of the rail, the upper end of the hook having a band extending laterally of the body of the bar, with'a rigidshoe made of cast metal engaging the other. rail base flange and having a j aw extending between the upturned end of the bar and-the-rail; said spring bar being sprung from anorm'alcondition by twisting the same in applying it to the rail base andthe said shoe to force the said hookr down on the top'ofthe rail base in resiliently intending toresume its normal unstressed untwisted form. a V

.Anchors of the above described Vaughan type: have come into 'widcspread use and However sat1s have been very successful. factorily these, anchors may have been-in part, they have not fulfilled. all requirements for a relatively inexpensive highly ethcient means for'preventing creeping. of railroad rails and-"among the objections had to such Vaughan anchors are thefollowing: V

First, when cars of railroad trains traversing the rails become derailed, the relatively rigid unyielding cast shoes are engaged by the wheels of the derailed cars and the entire road bed is torn up. and the damage to the cars and the road bed is very seriously inbodiments vof-the Vaughan anchor have been 7 expensive to manufacture and to maintain and are subject to considerable variation in manufacture, one from the other. Third, the bite of the anchor on the rail' base flanges achieved by the rigid shoes of such commercial form of anchors efiiciently asis accomplished in other types of two piece anchors, suchfor instance as the type exemplified by United States Letters Patent No. 1,682,870 to F. W. Cooper, dated August 28, 1928, which has also gone into widespread 7 use, and which are not subject to theabove said first objection nor to the above said second objection. 1 An'object therefore ofmy invention is to provide an, improved two-piece anchor which is not subject to the above said first objection. i Another object of my invention is to pro vide an improved two-piece anchor which is not subject to the'above said second 'objec tion.

Another object of my invention is to provide anyimproved two-piece anchor flwhich is not subject to the above-said third objection.

Another object of invention is to provide an improved two-piece anchor which is notsubj ect to any of the above said enumerated objections.

Another object-of my vide an anchor which is inexpensive to manufacturein quantities, and which will be highly-eflicient in use. Another object of my invention islto provide an improved method of making 'a' highly eflicient rail anchor.

vide an improved rail anchor made at least in part of a rolled section of steel. a 7 Other objects of my invention and the invention it'selfwill become apparent to those skilled in the art to which my invention appertains from the following description ofan embodiment ofmy invention and-in which description reference willibehad to the accompanying drawings a i bodiment, wherein: 1 V a Fig. l'is a perspective View of,a rail anchor inventionis to pro- 1 llustrating saidemembodying the principles of my invention, saidanchor being illustrated as consisting of two parts'shown in assembled relation, no showing of a railroad rail associated therewith being illustrated; h

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the embodiment of Fig. 1', shown applied to a fragment of a railroad rail base I i Fig. 3 is aside elevational view'ofa yoke element" employedflin the embodiments of Figs.l,and 2;"i i Fig.4 is a rear elevational view of a clamp element of the foregoing embodiment;

Fi 5 is a side elevational view of the an-' z; a i A. paratus of the foregoing figures shown as applied to. a rallroad base fragment shown in transverse section, a fragment of a railroad Jtieshown in operative relation therewith;

Fig. 6 isia plan View of a second embodiment of my invention; v I 1 Y I 'F 1,glj;7 is-a s'ideelevat onalview of the said second embodiment shown as. applied to a.

railroad rail. base, shown intransverse secjtion,'a po'rtion of the yoke element of said embodiment of a railroad tie associated therewith a fra-gment ,lbeing shown as broken away to expose anotherwrse hidden part of the'clamp element;

offtheapparatus of Fig-J is a plan view of the clamp element of-"the .saijd'second embodiment; and 1 i 111 is a perspective view-thereof taken from above said clamp element/4P, f Referring now to Figsl to'5 "inclusive, of

the drawings, the first embodiment of my in vention, which is' illustrated therein, comprisespreferably a yoke element. substantially" as shown in thesaid prior'patent to Vaughan, 0. 1,113,516,- in combination with a novel form of clamp element made substantiallyentirely ofsheet steel material having considerable spring, qualitjysaid steel beng; generally termed spring steel and I will herein use the term spring steel? in its most {generally accepted sense asdistinguished from steel castingsijand' the like, which are relativelyunyiel'd'i'ng. i p The clanip element ,of .my' invention comprises a blank, .of sheet metal of preferably uniform thickness bent to provide a flanged Clamping piece having. a 'main body portion l,' a pair of substantially parallelforwardly extendingclampingflanges 2 and 3, anda lateral extensions: havinga relatively short Vclaniping'flange' 5 which extends forwardly inf spacedparallel. relation .to; the-flange 3 and therefore the'flange 2.];

The flange 2is disposed inja; verticalplane, and 1s provided'with a lower;portion 2a of considerable area whereby to provideon its 1 outer surface a tie engaging face whose area will be suflicient to minimize undue wearof the engaged surface of the railroad tie 6, shown in Fig. 2. The flange2 is provided with a notch 7 extending inwardly of its upward portion from its most forward edge 12, the notch comprising a substantially horizontal edge portion 7a and an upwardly ex tendingjdivergentedge portion 7 b which edge 7 portions areoined posteriorly by arr-upwardly extending rounded portion 70. The pur pose of relatively forming the said edge portions as described is to provide jaws I0 and 11 of suitable form" to snugly fit onto a lateral flange of a. rail base, such as the flange 8 of the rail base, 9, shown in Fig. 2.

However, I consider it important to make thenotched edge surfaces a and 7]) somewhat less slightly divergenttha'n theengaged surface ofthe rail base flange 8, whereby resiliently maintained contact will always be had betweenthemore forward edge portions 7a and 7 b and the engaged portions of the rail base flange, the clamping jaws 10' and 11 provided by the, notches due to the inherent resiliencyof the steel materialof the clamp being adapted to resiliently spread sufliciently to permit the driving of the jaws onto said rail base flange. When so positioned on the flangeS, the secondary jaw element formed by the clamping flange 5 overlies the rail base flange 8 while theintermediately disposed jaw'formed by the upper edge of the flange 3 underlies the rail base 8 in engagement with its bottom surface. 7 r

lVhen thus positioned ,onthe rail base flange, the clamp element l engages said flange at three longitudinally spaced portions offsaid flange, first by the jaws of the flange 2,,second by the jaw of the underlying flange 3 and third bythe jaw of the overlying flange 5.i This arrangement'practically.

provides two sets of jaws for the clamp e1e-' ment,.the first being the slightlyresiliently yielda'bleset of jaws 1011, and the second being the upper jaws 5' and 10 in. combination with thelower j aw-3. Both sets ofjaws are effective simultaneously to prevent movement of the clamp on the rail flange "lon gi' tudinally thereof, and are efliciently maintained in position because of theresilient qualities inherent in the clamp material whereby when the clamp is driven on the rail base flangev S t/here will be airesilient yielding of the parts thereof, and the resulting reaction will tend to hold the clampin of the anchor position throughoutthelperiod of use of the from the rail base willbe readily understood, being accomplished in a manner similar to that described in the aforesaid patent to Vaughan, and will be well understood from disclosure of said patent anda brief deand described is merely a two-piece rail anchor and employing no separable third look ing element.

I11 applying the rail anchor to the rail base flanges 8, the clamp 1 is first applied to one side of the rail base in the position shown in Fig. 1, the hook 13 then being hooked over the other side of the rail base and the yoke 14 carrying said hook is brought into such a position, whereby the said hooked end of the yoke supports one end thereof by engagementwith the upper side of the rail base and the other end of the yoke is brought into a position whereby it rests upon the projection 15 provided on the clamp element near the bottom ofthe back portion 41 thereof; a tool is then employed to grasp the upstanding arm 16 of the yoke and to rotate it in such a manner that the intermediate por tion 14 of the yoke isslightlytwisteduntilthe inner edge of the upstanding arm 16 snaps over the upper projection 17 of the clamp,

whereupon the lateral surface ofthe arm 16 engaging the edge 18 of the projection 17 will. prevent the yoke from regaining its normal unstressed form, whereupon the yoke, by virtue of the arm 16 will hold the clamp 1 by its back 4 closely'against the edge of the adjacent'rail base flange 8 and will maintain the resiliently spread jaw ele:- ments 3, 5,1-011 in clampingengagement with the rail base flange.

Removal of the anchor from the rail is accomplished by giving the arm 16 a slight rotational movement to displace the lower end 16 from vertical alignment with the lowermost projection15 of the clamp, whereupon the arm 16 may be driven downwardly past said projection to detach the yoke element 14 from the clamp and rail base. Having now described a preferred embodiment of my invention, a brief description only of a second embodiment thereof will be required. The second embodiment of my invention is illustrated in Figs. 6 to 11 inclusive, it'being understood that the yoke element, as illustrated in Fig. 3, is also preferably employed in the said second embodiment. V

The clamp thereof is substantially the same in form and operation as the previously described clamp illustrated in Fig. 4, eX- cept that the clamp of Figs. 10 and 11 is cut from a rolled length of resilient steel material of substantially T or I-section in substantially a manner like thatdescribed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 558,- 861, filed Aug. 2 1, 1931 (docket 1063)., In its finished form, it is substantiallylike the. clamp shown in F ig 4 for the said first embodiment, except that an additional flange 19 disposed preferably inthe plane of the-- notched flange 2 isprovided and is'eifective to provide additional area, adapted to engagethe railroad tie 7, against which it abuts. The flanges 3 and 5. and the projections 15" and 17 findtheir counterpartin form and functional characteristics'in. the

said first embodiment and will additional description. r e

The. provision of the flange19 alsostiifens the clamp to cause it to resist distortion to a greater extent than the clampqof the first embodiment. I-Ioweverflthe clamp. of Figs; 10 and 11 is sufliciently resilient as topossess to a high, degree the advantages previously ascribed to the inherent resiliency of .the clamp element. The operation of as'sem bling the anchor on to a rail base anddis assembling .it therefrom is performed in the same Way as that describedfor the force going embodiment.

I Having thus described my invention in certain embodiments, I am aware that numerous and extensive departures may be made from the embodiments illustrated and denot require typecomprising a yoke and :a clamp, said clamp belng of res llent sheet metal and comprising a back plate. portion and three approximately parallel relatively spaced vertical flanges extending from the same side-of rail base flange, the other of said flanges pro the said back portion, said flanges providing viding respectively lower and upperjaws which are longitudinally spaced from each other longitudinally of the rail base, the low- 7 er flange being'spaced longitudinally of the rail base from said first, flange, said'jaws adapted to be resiliently clamped and mainw tained on the rail base flange by engaging upper and lower surfaces thereof being retained thereon by said yoke. 1

3. In a rail anchorin combinationiwith a yoketerminating at. one end in an upstanding inturned hook. adapted to embrace a railbase flange and the other end in an upstanding clamp retaining arm, of a substantially'resili ent clamp element adapted to be maintained on the other-rail base flange by said arm comprising a 'resilient'sheet metal stampingha t ing a back plate portion engageable by said yoke 'arrn and a plurality of substantialsly parallel flanges adapted to grip'the upper-and lower'surfaces of the associated rail base flange and to be slightly resiliently distorted from normal formby the spreading 4; In a rail anchor'in combination with a yoke'terminatingat one end in an upstanding inturned hook adapted to embrace'a rail 7 base flange and the other end in an upstandingl clampi retaining arm; of a substantially resilient clamp element adapted to be maintained onthe other rail base flange by said arm Comprising a resilient sheet metalstamp inghaving a-back'plate portion engageable said yoke arm and a plurality of su'bstan tiallyparallel flanges adapted to grip the supper and lower surfaces of the associated rail basevflange and to be slightly resiliently distorted from normal form by the spreading effect of. said flange, an outer one of said flanges comprising a pair of superposed' aws' and anintermedi-ate of'said flanges forming v ajaw engaging said rail base flange at a side opposite to the flange side engaged other ofsaid jaws. I v An -anehor of the Vaughan two-piece type comprising a yoke and a clamp, said by two .7 clamp being of 'resilientsheet metal and compris'ing a back plate portion and three approximately parallel relatively spaced'ver V tical flanges extending from the same sideof the said back portion, said flanges providing alternately disposed upper, lower andfupper jaws, respectively adapted to clamp a rail base flangefand resiliently heldthereon by said yoke, said clamp back portion comprising also a locking projection extending rearwardly from its upper portion over which an angular projection of said'yoke maybe torsionally snapped and resiliently maintained in pressed distortedform thereby.

.6.-Ananchor of the Vaughan two-piece typecomprisinga yoke and a clamp, said clamp being of resilient sheet metal and comprising aback plate portion and three approximately parallel relatively spaced verti- Y cal flanges extending from the same side of the said-back portion, said flanges providing alternately disposed upper, lower and upper jaws, respectively adapted to clamp a rail base flange and resiliently held thereon by said yoke, said yoke being formed of a strip of spring sheet steel terminating at one end I in a hook adapted to embrace a rail base flange and at the other end in an upstanding angular projection, the back portion of said clamp being; provided with a rearwardly extending projection disposed between said lower and said last-named upper and above the, planeof'said lower jaw,said yoke angular projectionadapted to be snapped over. said projection ofrsaid back when-said strip is torsionally twisted against the power of itsinherent resiliency and is retained thereby in'distorted' form toefiect an anchoring: bite by said flange-embracing hook upon the embraced railhase flange.-

1 Y 7. In a rail anchor of-the Vaughan two= piece type-in combination with the torsional resilient yoke thereof, of an inherentlyresilient clamp formed of, sheet metal comprising a back-plate and three flanges extending from the same side? of said back plate in spaced relation, afirst of said'flan'ges providing a pairof superposed resilient jaws adapted to embrace the upperand lower surfaces of a rail base flange, the otherlof said flanges providingrespectively lower and up per jawswhich are longitudinallyrspaced from each other, longitudinally of the rail I base, the lower. flange being spaced longitudi nally. of the rail base from" said first flange, said jaws adapted to be resiliently clamped and-maintained on the rail base flange by engaging upper and lower surfaces thereof being retained thereon by saidyoke,and a projection extending rearwardly from'said back plate adaptedto retain said yoke in operative engagement with said-clamp back plate. i

' 8.- In a rail anchor in combination with a 5' yoke terminating at one end in an upstanding inturned hook adapted to embrace'a rail'base flange and the other end in an upstanding clamp retaining arm, of a substantially resilient' clamp element adapted to be maintained on the other railb'ase flange by said arm comprising a resilient sheet metal-stamp ing having a back plate portion engageable 'by said yoke arm and a plurality of-substantially' parallel flanges adapted to grip 

